Married Islands & Sugawara Shrine

 

Approaching Abu, 2 small islands lie just offshore.

The smaller island is named Megashima, which means Doe Island. It has a single torii and may have a hokura.

The larger island is named Ogashima, which means Stag Island. It has several torii and some shrine buildings. It is a branch of Kashima Shrine.

Being male and female islands, they are known as Married Couple Islands.

In Abu itself, the main shrine is a Sugawara Shrine.

Obviously Sugawara Michizane is enshried here.... same as in Tenmangu shrines or Tenjin shrines.... though am not sure why they have different names.

These shachi on the roof of a small hokoro were quite unusual...

Many shrines to Sugawara have an ox statue, from the ox that was carrying his coffin in Dazaifu and then stopped. At that spot Dazaifu Tenmangu was built, though until Meiji it was actually a temple.

There was no signboard at the shrine, and I can not find any information about the shrine online in either Japanese or English...

There were some nice paintings on the ceiling and a fairly unusual pair of komainu

The previous post in this series on day 3 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the walk from Oi to here...

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Miyahata Shrine Kunisaki

 

Almost at the end of my 5th day walking around the Kunisaki Peninsula at the start of the Kyushu Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, my last shrine of the day was Miyahata Shrine.

It seems to be quite a largish shrine with a long approach from the main road, but is totally lacking in any Buddhist elements, like Nio guardian, which suggests it is maybe not so old and maybe only dating back to Edo or a little earlier.

Curiously the second torii was made of some kind of plastic.

There was no signboard, and I can find absolutely no information online. The names on the torii are Tenjingu and Toshijingu.

The ox statue suggests Tenjin, the deified version of Sugawara Michizane. The previous shrine I visited had a Toshidaimyojin which was Otoshi, so maybe this is also Otoshi.

Up on the hillside is a collection of small, local shrines, which means maybe the bTenjin shrine supplanted the earlier shrine.

As can be seen in the first photo, there are some nice carvings on the shrine building.

The previous post in this series was on the nearby Toshi Daimyojin Shrine.

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Tenjin Shrine Tokushima

 

Right next to the Awa Odori Hall and Ropeway Station in downtown Tokushima is the Tenjin Shrine.

It was established by Hachikusa Iemasa at the opening of the 17th century. It was destroyed during the bombings of WWII and the current buildings date to the late 70's.

The giant red torii was erected in 1986 to commemorate Emperor Showa's 60 years on the throne.

There are several smaller shrines within the grounds, including a Himeyama Shrine with associations with finding a spouse and good marital relations.

There is also a Kunin Daimyojin known for business prosperity and success in exams, which seems to be cutting into the territory of the main kami of the shrine, Tenjin, aka Sugawara Michizane.

The biggest secondary shrine is an Inari shrine right next to the main hall......

It is the one with lots of sake barrels in front of it....

The previous post in this series on Tokushima was on the views from Mount Bizan.

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Suijin Shrine Saigo

 

This Suijin Shrine, is located on the waters edge in Saigo, the main port of Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan off of Shimane.

Most locals refer to it as Tenjinsan, as since at least the 16th century Sugawara Michizane has been enshrined here.

However, towards the end of the Edo period it was decided that this was a Suijin Shrine that had been recorded in the tenth century, and Tenjin had been added later.

I recently covered a similar situation where the Suwa Shrine in Kobe had become overpowered by the Inari that had been enshrined later.

The main kami is now listed as Mizuhanome, though it is unclear if that was a renaming from the Meiji riod when many kami were renamed to fit with the "national" histories of the Kojiki and Nihonshoki.

The previous ost in this series on the Oki Islands was on Takuhi Shrine, one of the most important shrines in the Oki Islands.

Achi Shrine Kurashiki

 

Achi Shrine is located on a hilltop overlooking the Bikan Historic District in Kurashiki, and is now the pre-eminent shrine of the area.

The chinowa, the circular "rope" of grass for purification can be found at different times of the year at diferent shrines. Here it was mid August.

It is believed that in ancient times this was the site of a garden belonging to the local ruling clan and there is supposed to be remnants of a cran and turtle island stone arrangement from that time.

Around tye time the area started to develop as a political and merchant centre, a Myoken Shrine was moved here from a nearby temple.

Until 1868 it was known as Myoken-gu and changed the name to Achi Shrine at the time of Shinbutsu bunri.

The first shrine buildings were built in 1620.

The three main kami are now said to be the Munakata Princesses, Tagirihime, Tagitsuhime, and Ichikishimahime, collectively known for marine safety.

Myoken was a very popular shrine in Japan, dedicated to the Buddhist deity of the North Star. When most Myoken shrines were changed in 1868 they switched to a pair of obscure kami from the Kojiki. Why they chose the Munakata Kami here is a mystery.

There are a wide variety of secondary shrines and kami in the grounds including a Susano shrine that also brought in several other local shrine kami in the so-called shrine mergers of 1910.

A Tenmangu shrine also enshrines Yamato Takeru, Sarutahiko, and Omononushi as well as Sugawara Michizane. Curiously there were lots of Daruma dolls at this shrine.

Another sub-shrine enshrines Okuninushi, Kotoshironushi, and Homusubi.

There is also an Inari shrine brought here from nearby in the early 20th century. The shrine grounds has quite a famous Wisteria, and a Noh stage also.

I visited at the start of day 8 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage as I headed south out of Kurashiki towards the next temple, Rendaiji. The previous post was on Kurashiki Silhouettes the evening before.